Developer John Kimball and Kevin Solli, whose engineering firm designed the project, look over plans for the future site of a 161,000-square-foot retail project near Swiss Army corporate headquarters in Monroe.
Photo: Autumn Driscoll

Developer John Kimball and Kevin Solli, whose engineering firm designed the project, stand at the future site of a 161,000-square-foot retail project near Swiss Army corporate headquarters in Monroe.
Photo: Autumn Driscoll

Developer John Kimball has a tenant for the project, called Victoria Place, but he isn't telling. He also hasn't told the traffic administrators as finishing touches are put on its final submission to the agency, according state Traffic Administration spokesman Kevin Nursick.

Kimball, who has had the anchor store lined up since at least September, said he expects to release the name of the retailer in 60 days.

"Lowe's and Home Depot aren't that big. There are very few that big. There's no Wal-Mart superstore in Fairfield County," he said, adding BJ's Wholesale, Costco and Target, as well as Sam's Club, a unit of Wal-Mart, could be considered. Kimball has persevered for more than eight years to bring the project to fruition.

"We got our first approvals for a retail use back in 2005. It was a tough time to bring a project like this on line," he said.

But the long wait should be over this year when the developer starts excavating the site.

Two years to completion

"We hope to break ground this fall and complete it by the spring of 2016," said Kevin Solli, principal in Solli Engineering, the Monroe civil engineering and land development consulting firm that designed the project.

The development site got bigger last month when a subsidiary of Kimball bought the former Vishay Vitramon property at 10-36 Main St. An 84,000-square-foot industrial building on the 15-acre parcel was razed.

The site will include 120,000 to 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, Solli said.

"The integration of 10 Main Street into Victoria Place provides the critical mass necessary for a successful retail destination, with improved traffic flow through the corridor by completing the necessary roadway widening and the donation of right of way to the state of Connecticut," said Kimball, president of Kimball Development.

Bass Pro at Steelpointe

The retail development contrasts with a previous plan by Jewish Senior Services to locate a life-care facility on the site. It was withdrawn after concerns about connecting with the Bridgeport sanitary sewer system, said Jon Angel, president of Fairfield-based Angel Commercial, a real estate broker that represented Jewish Senior Services. The project is planned for a Bridgeport site, according to the nonprofit organization.

"I'm not surprised to see this (Victoria Place)," Angel said, adding across the county the arrival of large retailers in the last couple of years, like REI in Norwalk and Trader Joe's in Stamford, has been at vacant buildings, rather than new construction.

"You're not seeing `build it, and they will come.' "

Large retail buildings are not being built on spec with no prospective tenant, according to Angel, who said financing to construct a building is much easier to obtain when there is a tenant ready and waiting.

While construction of large, single-occupant retail buildings, like Victoria Place, is rare in the region, there are exceptions.

The region is seeing retail growth, but nothing on the scale of the Monroe project, aside from Bass Pro Shops, which is building a 140,000-square-foot store this year at the Steelpointe project in Bridgeport, said Jesse Tron, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Victoria Place is "a sizable space. I don't know of anything else that big," said Tron, a Greenwich resident, adding it will be some time before need arises for large-scale construction of shopping centers. "We're seeing redevelopment of spaces. We're adding more stores than we're losing nationally. In Fairfield County, things are looking up."

Planet Fitness in Danbury

Vacancies are filling up in the Danbury area, said Garett Palmer, a commercial real estate broker with Goodfellow Ashmore in Danbury.

"Some of the big boxes have been filled in the last year," Palmer said, noting a Planet Fitness has moved into a former Borders Books & Music on Federal Road in Danbury.

Palmer is representing a 25,000-square-foot shopping center that is scheduled to open in mid-summer on Federal Road in Brookfield. A tenant will include a La-Z-Boy store that is moving from 18 Federal Road.

Litchfield Crossing on Danbury Road in New Milford is home to Kohl's, Big Lots and Home Goods, while a 13-acre parcel further along Danbury Road is being offered for retail development, Palmer said.

But the potential for retail growth is limited across much of Fairfield County, said Norman Lotstein, vice president of Stamford-based Pyramid Real Estate Group, because of the paucity of suitable space and development costs.

"Fairfield County is a well-established, mature retail marketplace, and there is no shortage of retail square footage here," he said. "Developable sites are limited, and those that are available tend to be extremely expensive. The Internet continues to dig into sales of brick-and-mortar stores. It's not likely that we're going to see a huge amount of retail development."